Ownership Verified: Another chick's car: Ford Falcon BA XR6

Just FYI, EBC has a patented upgrade rotor that's great for heavier cars - dimpled and slotted. Most of the benefits of drilled without the disadvantages of cracking, shattering, etc., etc.

ebc-gd-slotted-and-dimpled-rotors-genesi-coupe.jpg


I wouldn't use any crossdrilled rotors that weren't cast/forged as such, as Bobole23 mentions. I sure as hell wouldn't use crossdrilled rotors on heavier vehicles unless provided by the OEM.
 
It’s been pretty quiet on the Falcon front. Nothing much gone wrong, no major dramas.
Car was due for registration while I was over in Texas, so before I left I knew I had to do something about it’s rear tyres. One just wasn’t holding air anymore (I was unable to re-inflate it when I tried), and they were both on the worn side.

That turned out to be an understatement, as I jacked the car up in the garage and removed the wheels.
3555309


After getting the new tyres mounted and balanced, I brought them home and re-fitted the wheels.
Then I promptly left the country, and the XR6 tucked away safely in the garage.

3555311


Upon return, I forgot that it was unregistered (I hadn’t been able to get it inspected prior to leaving), and drove to the local shops. Oops.
Returned home uneventfully, and borrowed the Astra from work for a couple of days.

Grabbed the trade plate that we have for such an event, took the car to work, and left it to be inspected while I was busy.
It of course passed with no problems.
I then handed over rather a lot of money (thanks NSW RMS!:censored:), and now have the car back on the road legally, for another 12 months.

I have it booked in for an alignment next week, to avoid a repeat of the wear seen above.

My bump stops have seen better days, but they’re not ruined, so I’ll have to change them (again) in the nearish future. Brake pads are OK. Exhaust and hangers look fine. Sway bars and bushes look just as good as when I installed them. Shocks and springs are good too.

Still haven’t got around to the front brake upgrade (yes, I know). It’s not gotten that much worse over the time I’ve known about the warping. It’s not a concern for now, but rotors will be changed the next time it needs pads, though that could be quite awhile yet.

Finally bought a dash cam, so that needs to be properly fitted. I had one late last year which failed after a couple of days, once I’d hidden all the wiring and such. This made me very angry.

Still very happy with my car, do not regret!!:wub::wub:
 

Attachments

  • DA70F0D6-D24A-4399-99F4-D3742F48E902.jpeg
    DA70F0D6-D24A-4399-99F4-D3742F48E902.jpeg
    1.3 MB · Views: 196
Last edited:
Way back when I fitted the halo rings (some of the LEDs in which have failed ?), I also sourced an extra fog light switch to wire them to, so I could switch them off at night.
Turns out that switch was from some other model where those switches were illuminated, and so I’ve had one white light amongst the lovely blue glow in the cabin. It can’t be seen while driving - really only from the front passenger seat, but knowing it was there and didn’t match was annoying, so I bought a replacement blue LED bulb and switched it over tonight.
Had a couple of issues with contacts moving and the bulb not locking into place as securely as it should, but that was nothing a wad of electrical tape couldn’t solve, and now it matches!!
Sadly the other buttons (for fog lights, fuel flap and boot release), are not able to be illuminated, otherwise I'd be all over that too.
033FDC30-839B-4CCD-9080-1A043515388F.jpeg
9A0E57BD-9600-4F80-B3C4-6B25A2832F87.jpeg
1BA14121-CD2E-48C2-8399-BECE34151799.jpeg


The light really is blue, but my phone couldn't figure it out.
 
Last edited:
*poke*
 
I finally have things to report!

A couple of minor niggling issues. The screen for the centre console ICC doesn't always want to wake up when starting the car. Especially if it's been sitting for a few days. 10 or 15 minutes into my journey, it will usually wake itself up. So I'm assuming I will need to pull the entire (one piece) ICC out, and reseat the main connector plug, by pulling it forward until it clicks, then refitting everything. 45 minutes work, for a 5 second fix...

Also, the last time the door locking actuator died (a super common issue on the BAs, due to plastic worm gears in the locking spring snapping), one of my workmates decided to be helpful and try reassembling it while I was out on a job. He bent the rod that pops up the door lock, because he was too impatient to actually make sure it was in the correct position. So when I tried unlocking the door with the spare key today, surprise, surprise, it doesn't work, and the whole mechanism feels jammed. So I'll have to pull that apart too. Again.

Which brings me to yesterday... Doing admin stuff for the bus company, I was making the 200m drive from the post office, to the depot, when suddenly there's a constant scraping noise from the left rear of my car.
I babied it the last bit up the driveway and into the yard, and started inspecting. Had one of the workmates confirm the noise was indeed left rear, worse under braking, so either I've picked up a stone in the rough gravel carpark I just had to drive through, or my brake pads are done.

Locked it in the shed last night, and came home with Dad, as both work shitboxes are unregistered currently.

Today, I "caught a bus" to work, as one of our drivers was coming past after his job, he picked me up on his way to the yard, and I set about investigating. Left rear pads were done. Toast. Goneski. Kaput.

brakes1.jpeg

Right side wasn't too bad.
brakes2.jpeg


Walked down the driveway to the auto spares warehouse in the building in front of us; They know us, and they're good to us, so a new set was procured for the meager sum of $30.

Changeover was pretty painless, and about an hour later both sides were done and ready to go again.

Meanwhile, the new rotors and pads for the front continue to take up space in the boot, until the current pads are done too.
 
Last edited:
Had an audit customer today, who was based in a rural type village about an hours drive out west of Sydney, so it was the first chance to stretch the legs in the car for quite some time.
Last week I filled up and added some fuel system cleaner to the tank, since it's only done 5-8km trips for about the last 2 years. (For a few months, I literally wasn't allowed more than 5km from home under lockdown).
Checked all it's other vital systems last night, and headed off this morning. Changed a blown brake light bulb the other day, but there's always a box of spares in the car just in case.

Anyway, I timed the appointment to miss most of the peak hour traffic, though I was heading the opposite way to most traffic both ways.
The customer's driveway was pretty awful for a low car, on the crest of a hill, on a bend, so not really the kind of spot you want to be backing out of very slowly. I would never have made it if I'd turned around and driven out.
Finished the audit around 2pm, so set the GPS for this lookout point nearby, and headed off. There are some nice twisties around that area, and being a weekday, traffic was pretty light, so it was quite enjoyable.

Sadly, my dashcam overwrote all the fun bits with the boring expressway drive home, or I would have posted some of that - minus the bits where I'm singing along to whatever I happened to be listening to. No one needs to hear that.

IMG_E3626.JPG



IMG_3623.JPG



IMG_3613.JPG


I still love this car, even after 16 years together. Seeing it in the garage still puts a smile on my face.
 
Last edited:
Then you know you made the right choice. I usually don't like staring at the same dashboard for more than 4-5 years, doesn't matter what I drive.
 
I definitely wanna drive one of those one day.. we'll see if and when that happens :D

There's a car youtuber in Wales that went on a NZ/AU tour, bought a Ford Fairmont on the trip and got so attached to it that he ended up bringing it home. It's now got British plates on it. Wonder what the TÜV would say?
 
There's a car youtuber in Wales that went on a NZ/AU tour, bought a Ford Fairmont on the trip and got so attached to it that he ended up bringing it home. It's now got British plates on it. Wonder what the TÜV would say?

TÜV SAGT NEIN
 
There's a car youtuber in Wales that went on a NZ/AU tour, bought a Ford Fairmont on the trip and got so attached to it that he ended up bringing it home. It's now got British plates on it. Wonder what the TÜV would say?
The only problem is finding lights that would be for a LHD car.

I don't believe these were sold/produced in LHD at all?
 
Don’t think so, no. Boo.
Nope. Stupidly Ford US never wanted them.

I suspect the lights would need to be rebuilt from scratch with a kit of some sort. It’d be a lot of trial and error.
 
It looks like your modification journey with this car is not yet over.
 
What I would do is cut a 90mm hole in the middle of the reflector and drop a 90mm Hella in there so the lens pokes out in the middle of the original reflector. They’re used by everything from bus manufacturers to Singer porsches because all the necessary paperwork is done. I’ve seen exactly that neatly done on an F-350.

LED-ajovaloHella90mmL4060_3003000551_1.jpg
singer-reimagined-porsche-911-southampton-commission-front.jpg
 
Top